5 Ways to Upgrade Your Grilled Cheese

By Kiersten | Last Updated: September 16, 2014

Photos by Rikki Snyder

Grilled cheese sandwiches are a vegetarian staple, but slices of American cheese on white bread can get a little stale after a while. (Get it? Stale?) We’ve teamed up with Mouth, the leading online source for indie food, sprits, and wine, to come up with five grilled cheese ideas that are anything but boring.

The Classic

Start with a good sharp cheddar and make sure you use plenty of it to get that perfect melty, messy center. The classic grilled cheese is best served with a bowl of homemade tomato soup. Don’t have time to make a batch from scratch? No problem! Use a good quality tomato sauce and thin it out with a little vegetable broth. Cube your sandwich into grilled cheese croutons and have your whole lunch in one convenient bowl!

The Sweet and Smoky

A lot of people love bacon in a grilled cheese, but when you don’t eat meat, smoked cheese is a great way to get that smoky flavor in your sandwich. We’ve used smoked gouda and paired it with a sweet Apple Caramelized Onion Spread.

The Fancypants

If you’ve never had a grilled cheese with brie, give it a try! Just be careful not to overdo it on the cheese—it has a tendency to spill over the edges of the bread if you use too much. Brie and jam is a classic combination, but other soft cheeses are perfect for this sandwich too.

The Heartbreaker

Barbecue sauce is one of our favorite additions to grilled cheese. To add another layer of flavor, we’ve added sweet pickled onions to this sandwich. Amp up the heat by using pepper jack cheese, or keep things mild with a high quality aged cheddar.

The Italian Dipper

This is the sandwich version of deep-fried mozzarella sticks. Spread tapenade on both sides of crusty bread slices and sandwich a layer of provolone or mozzarella cheese between them. Grill your sandwich to crispy perfection, then cut it into slices and dip them in marinara.

About Mouth

We love small-batch artisan foods and that’s what Mouth is all about. From Chai Spice Peanut Butter to Sriracha Mayonnaise, Mouth has a bounty of unique handmade foods made by real people with real ingredients and gifts for every occasion. Oh My Veggies readers who sign up for the Mouth mailing list will receive a 20% promo code and be entered for a chance to win a $250 gift card to use on Mouth’s website.

Woah woah woah! Those are some AMAZING ideas you’ve got going on there. Now you’ve given me an express desire for ciabatta with fresh mozzarella and marinara and tapenade and a painfully acute lack of those ingredients nor any means to get them…such a tragedy. Oh well. Your pictures are amazing. Will be content to drool for now. 😀

Had grilled cheese & tomatoe soup for lunch yesterday! Used Edam cheese & spread it with home made cranberry sauce….give it a try! My soupnwas not home made but still good ‘ I use half milk/half water !! I like your idea of cutting the sandwich in cubes & adding to soup. TKY for all your recipes

You know I love using my preserves on grilled cheese. So many great flavor combo ideas here! Also, I highly recommend making one of these grilled cheese sandwiches in the waffle iron – so fun, and adds all these toasted nooks and crannies!

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